The Ring of Fire. It's Harder Than It Looks.

See that? It's beautiful, no? (Insert sarcasm here. I'm aware that it's just a pile of stones in a semi-square-ish shape, doing nothing at all and interfering with the garden.) That would be the start of my newest rock project.

Yes, here I go again with the rock talk.

I have a plan to make an outdoor fireplace. Something small and modest, like this:



See? Nothing elaborate. Much. And while I've got a good start on the project with those 8 rocks I laid down, I had to stop at that point because I already ran into problems. What does one do to elevate the fire area? You don't put the fire down in the ground - obviously it's build up. See that above? Yeh, how does that happen? Is concrete involved? Fire bricks? Concrete blocks?

So I asked Mr. Google, because he knows everything. This is the answer I got. "Set the fireplace, and put stone around it." Well thank you, Captain Obvious. If I *had* a fireplace to set I'd be doing that very thing. (Okay, I actually do have a fireplace insert to set, but I have grand plans to turn that into an outdoor pizza oven. Try not to be jealous of my ambition. Just know that the grill surround I started 2 years ago still isn't finished. It may never be. I'm a starter, not a finisher.) So I'm back to Square One on the fireplace. I fear I'll end up with something more like this:



Which, you know, isn't as bad as all that. Right? Except for the stone that fell out of the top there. But mine will probably have that as well. I do have questions on how to make those stones stay. Probably with cement, but is that fire resistant? I mean, I know cement doesn't burn, but will it withstand the heat and still hold rocks together? So many questions.

And because I'm in charge of the project and I have no clue what I'm doing and Google is no help at all, this is probably what I'll end up with:



Which is okay, because it's also pretty. I prefer the chimney version, but can certainly live with a well made fire ring. Except mine probably wouldn't have the purty top stones on it. And my rocks won't fit together so perfectly because I'll be using real stone and not premanufactured already-curved ones. Which also means that the sides won't be flat and smooth. So that leaves me with this:



Which is a shocking resemblance to the first picture that I have going, no? So I guess I really do have a good start. Actually, I'm almost done. Go, me.